Battle of Le Marais

The Battle of Le Marais occurred in late 1940 when the French Resistance, led by Sean Devlin, rose up against the German garrison of the Le Marais section of Paris, inflicting heavy damage across the district. The uprising was initiated by Devlin, who had been sent by French Resistance leader Luc Gaudin to rescue former French Foreign Legion soldiers from a German prison camp in Le Marais. He succeeded in doing so after a large firefight, and, after he escaped from the camp, he proceeded to carry out guerrilla activities across the district. He started by blowing up a radar emplacement on a roadside, and he went on to bomb searchlights, fuel depots, occupation towers, and armored cars. At one point, he commandeered a German anti-aircraft gun to destroy several nearby radios and other German installations, and he then planted a charge on the gun and destroyed it. However, the takeover of Le Marais was a long and drawn-out process, and scores of Germans would be killed before the people were inspired to resist them.